In a way, startups are leaving SF BECAUSE startups are coming to SF. That is, when there is a large influx of capital-rich startups, startups w/o capital (or who are capital sensitive) are forced out.

Overall, there's a net in-flow of startups into SF, and so, the VC's follow.

Reminds me of the popular quote: "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded."

You can interpret it as "a small fraction of people go because the absolute number of people is larger than capacity"

Stated like this it becomes obvious we need to pay attention to the denominator.

Yogi Berra lives!

Or modern day... "Nobody uses Facebook anymore, it's too crowded"

They do a good amount of briefing events wherein (usually larger/well known/older) companies can meet with A16Z portfolio companies for show and tell style pitch sessions. If they can host some in SF, it would certainly make things easier for a good chunk of companies logistically. Also many of their team live in SF as the article mentions and this would certainly help their commutes.

Disclaimer: A16Z are an investor in my company

don't believe the hype. the numbers coming into silicon valley still dwarf the numbers going out, even if the number of those going out is starting to increase slightly

Office rents are lower in SF than in Palo Alto.

My guess: brand/name recognition is HUGE for vc as they can get first-look to the top founders/start-ups. A16Z is one of the best VC brands and they want to perpetuate that (and being in SF paints that image). Relatedly, the start-ups A16Z funds can afford to be in SF. It's the less well-funded companies that are moving out...and are probably companies that A16Z passed on.

The more expensive, the better it works as a signaling mechanism.

I work for a start-up with offices in Sunnyvale, California. Our staff is mature people who have done this before and want the best place to establish an office and work.

None of us would dream of living or working in San Francisco. We all live and work in and around Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Santa Clara, etc.

For a mostly-hype startup staffed by kids fresh from Stanford, Harvard, and MIT, I suppose the flashier the offices the better and that may mean the "excitement" of San Francisco. We're in a concrete tilt-up close to everything we need.

I think they were talking about the whole bay area. If they were talking about moving out of SF to another part of the Bay Area, SF is way more central than Silicon Valley.

Edit: I realize you would be near their old offices. Still, if they're looking to find the most entrepreneurs that they can who aren't motivated by hype, the more central from a transportation perspective, the better. And there is no place in the bay area that you can expect people from all parts of the bay area to come to other than SF.

Maybe central by geography but not by population.

I think its only recently that SF office space surpassed Mountain View. Startups originally moved to SF because it was cheaper.

I would have thought Sunnyvale would be pretty pricey too. It's like right between Google and Apple.

Exactly! But for some reason young people moving to CA to "make it" wouldn't dream of living here.

There's not a whole lot of data suggesting an exodus from SF.

There's increasing amounts of VC funding in Asia so SFBA is not as dominant as it used to be 20 years ago but SF is still by far the center of the universe as far as starting a startup goes, and there's no major trends that would suggest a decline in absolute terms.

http://startupsusa.org/global-startup-cities/

> I am hearing that startups are moving out of SF because it is too expensive.

Much like the city is soo crowded these days that nobody goes there anymore. I mean it's true (because it is crowded people get pushed to the periphery) but it also implies that the city has reached capacity and that it is crowded all the times.

More like: startups with low funding are moving out of SF because it is too expensive.

What feels weird? Being in SF or startups moving out of SF?